September 27, 2010

You can measure the worth of most non-government subsidized items by demand. How badly would someone else want that item? I know almost everyone is unhappy with our assistant coaches right now and for good reason. In particular, many are unhappy with the job that Stacy Searels is doing with our offensive line.

But here's the thing. Stacy Searels is by far the most accomplished assistant coach on this staff. He built two national championship offensive lines for LSU. He coached the 2003 unit under Nick Saban, and he recruited, taught and developed the 2007 line from scratch that Les Miles took to a national title the year after Searels left for Athens.

Searels is a guy that Nick Saban tried to hire in 2007, and Gene Chizik made a run at him last year to return to his alma mater. If Georgia were to let Searels go at the end of the season, he would only be unemployed for about 30 minutes.

And...his players are the most experienced unit on the team and one of the more seasoned groups in the nation. Clint Boling (Sr.) and Chris Davis (RSr.) have started over 35 games each. Cordy Glenn (Jr.) and Ben Jones (Jr.) have started over 25 games each, and Josh Davis is a fifth year senior with 10+ starts under his belt.

So my question boils down to this...How on earth could our most accomplished coach who is leading our most experienced group deliver a unit that is by far the worst on the team? I've been a Dawg fan for 20 years, and I've attended well over 200 games in person. In that time, I don't think I've ever seen us produce an offensive line of this gross ineptitude. I can't speak for that 1990 team but I don't remember anything as terrible as this since then.

Even the 2003 OL which started 3 Freshmen (two of whom were badly injured all season) and 2 sophs was better than this unit. How is that possible?

As a fan, I simply can't put my head around it. I've never seen a team that had coaching and personnel continuity like our offensive line regress in such catastrophic fashion.

If Searels can reach this group...or bench some of them...you would think this season can be salvaged to some measure. If he can't, a long season will get a lot longer.

PWD

(As for Bobo...the play calling is bad and so is the scheme. But every play looks better when it's blocked. I have thoughts on Bobo that I'll share later, but it's nothing ground breaking. Everyone knows the play calling is a hot mess.)

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comments:

I think part of the issue may be distrust by Searels of Bobo. I've heard this from multiple people who are in the building at Butts. If Searels doesn't believe in what Bobo is doing then how will his guys? The flip side of that is that I see them walking down Lumpkin together everyday looking like the best of friends. But if the coaches aren't on the same page there is no way the offense can be.

Paul, how do you not know this? You can't have a dominating line without dominating players. And you get dominating players through strength & conditioning. 2 years ago Searles & Richt came to blows over the shitty job Van Halenger does. But Richt took the side of his pal Dave. Why do you think both lines are shitty? Hell, all of our players are weak. We get pushed around every game And this has been going on for years. It begins with Dave Van Halenger. Searles didn't just forget how to coach. But old man Halenger hasn't kept up with the times. NFL scouts have for years said we're weak & out of shape. Former players have joked about the antiquated methods trainers & S&C coaches use.

I think that he realized the ship was sinking long ago and has begun networking for a new job.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see that Bobo, like Martinez before, is in over his head. How can a Championship level, professional coach like Searels be expected to take orders from a nitwit like Bobo?

I think there is a lot more behind-the-scenes strife than any of us will ever know, and I think it stems from a lack of communication from the top down.

100% with you. The offensive line is the biggest problem on the team at this point and it is the one thing that I can't even begin to explain/excuse away.

Bobo's play calling has been bad, but I think that's because he's just completely lost at what to do because he has zero faith on the line to block for him. Put a competent line in front of his offense and I'd be willing to bet we're 4-0 and having a drastically different discussion at this point.

Great points, PWD. I don't get it either. The experience is there. The size is there. It must boil down to the heart. These guys just don't believe in the staff. How else can you break it down?

I guess you could blame the strength and conditioning program. I don't know. It just doesn't add up all around for this team. Saying we are dealing with an underachieving team is a certainty.

I'm afraid we were all bamboozled by the athletic talents of Stafford, Moreno, MoMass, AJ, and others. They were able to overcome the coaching. Now we are at a point where our schemes have fallen so far behind the rest of the conference we are not likely to recover for several years.

I think the OL, like the rest of the team, has lost all motivation. Why would you as a seasoned, proven OL want to go out and essentially bash your head against a wall (basically what we're doing by running dive plays into a blatantly obvious stacked box/blitz) all because MIke Bobo told you thats what you had to do? I for one would either a.) say to hell with this and not give an effort, or b.) try and skew the results to force the OC to make some better calls, preferably something that actually plays to the advantages of the guys I'm blocking for (Murray's running ability, the TE's catchign ability, the speed of Wooten and Smith - the former of which has been all but pronounced dead relative to playing time). I think what you're seeing is this team protesting the playcalling and the treatment of some of it's players (Logan Gray getting time over Wooten and Aron White? Really?)

r.t,dawg... all of our predicted strong points have turned out to be weak... out weak points, qb, have turned out to be our focal points... obviously there is a disconnect somewhere. let us hope unity is found on 10.2.10!

To the first 2 posters,If Searels did have big issues with Bobo and/or DVH, don't you think he would have taken the Auburn job? Go to your alma mater, make good money and get rid of guys you don't like... seems like that would have been reason not to stay.

This may be completely off base but here is a theory....Mark Richt neuters his assistants mute.....How do you think he reacts when Searls and Grantham throw out f-bombs? Like an un-approving older brother who is the perfect one? This is simply conjecture...if a man of devout faith interacts with the savagery of football an the colorful language (e.g Rex Ryan) that goes with it....do you think he really embraces it? I seriously doubt it....I haven't noticed but how has Grantham reacted recently to miscues? I don't think it has been as vehement as the first game when Rambo blew the coverage....Richt is a great man and a good coach.....but he appears to be too unemotional or too soft to be effective anymore. I hate to say that. He has done a poor job managing his assistants over the years and let a few leave that should've found a home at UGA (K.Smart, Muschamp).....I could be completely off base but in a results oriented business, his current results speak for themselves. The way the program looks now is a direct reflection of him as a coach.

Richt has coached like a girl since he started using black uniforms as a substitute for preparation and toughness. First came the gimmicks (touchdown celebration at Florida anyone?) and now come the beatdowns.

I'm about damn tired of hearing what a great man Richt is. I'm sure he's a great guy. Some people really like Jimmy Carter, but he still sucked at being the president. Stagflation anyone?

We need a leader who lives and breathes GEORGIA FOOTBALL. We don't have that now. We have a great guy, etc. It seems obvious to me that either Richt fundamentally changes some things and gets the team together, or he's gone. I just hope we don't blow another three seasons recovering from the last three.

Anon - The uniforms and the celebration are examples of motivational techniques utilized by Richt that have ultimately failed in the face of real preparation and toughness (see Bama). My point being - it ain't the uniforms or whatever else Georgia has been doing, it's what's inside them. The uniforms and the rap may be cool (or not), but cool alone doesn't cut it. Instead, it gets your ass kicked.

Perhaps the offensive line isn't as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Perhaps they are. I just know that we don't have a running back on this team that gets appreciable yards after contact. We don't have a Moreno, Herschel, Ingram, Richardson, etc. Our backs don't punish anyone. They don't elude anyone. They don't in general take care of the football. Great backs make average lines look better. We don't have a great back. King and Ealey are retreads of Jasper Sanks

I'm not saying that the rushing problems are all on the O line or the running backs. In the last six or seven games of the season Georgia didn't face a rushing defense, other than Florida, that ranked in the top half of the nation in rushing defense (Georgia Tech, 68th, was the best other than Florida). How great was the rushing attack in the first half of last season? Pretty poor all in all.

I'm not saying that Searels doesn't share any of the blame. I'm only pointing out that Georgia may be in the unfortunate place of having average offensive linemen and average running backs.

During the summer before the 2008 season I witnessed something that bothered me then and sticks with me today regarding a certain OL.

We were shopping in a store at Discover Mills mall and this certain UGA OL was in the store shopping with his mom and dad. His mother's father had played at Alabama and there was some discussion about that between the family and others at the store.

The conversation turned to the OL and someone said they hoped that the OL would be improved. That's all that was said.

The OL and his father looked at each other and laughed in their faces. As if to say they were about to take the field in 2008 and dominate some folks.

Well, that never happened. Still hasn't happened since then.

What gets me was the attitude. It turned me off then and it still rankles me now. Because our OL is THE weakness of the team. Almost always has been under Richt.